School of Electrical Engineering

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A NEW MODE OF TEACHING FOR SELF-DIRECTED
LEARNING E. Ambikairajah, J. Epps, M. Sheng,
and B. Celler The School of Electrical
Engineering The University of New South Wales,
Australia
School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Engineering Education Conference 2006
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• Learning Obstacles in Large Classroom
• Full-time students often do not do sufficient
  study out of class. (due to work
  commitments, fatigue in class, fast-moving large
  classes, comprehension difficulties)
• Lack in fluency in spoken and/or written
  English.
• Communication of difficult mathematical
  concepts.
• Difficulty in maintaining students attention
  span.
• Different learning pace of individual
  students.
• Losing continuity due to missed classes.
• Only a small percentage of students are able to
  grasp the key concepts at the time of live
  lecture delivery the remaining students are left
  to develop this critical understanding in their
  own time, with whatever assistance they can find.

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• What Students Want
• Our student feedback has indicated that
• The ability to independently review live
  lecture content at their own pace outside of
  class hours would be a major benefit to them.
  
• They need to revisit lectures to solve problems
  arising during large classes, to alleviate
  language difficulties, to learn difficult
  concepts, and to do ongoing revision
  throughout the course.
• This facilitates their increased study
  commitment out of class.

School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Engineering Education Conference 2006
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• VCPlayer A Tool For Self-Directed Learning
• VCPlayer allows students to play back a lecture
  as if they were in the real classroom
  (lecturer video and whiteboard contents with
  annotation both synchronized are played back
  simultaneously).
• The lecture view window can be overlaid on top
  of annotated slides in a number of
  pre-determined positions, or it can be dragged
  and positioned anywhere.

School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Click below image to see a demo of VCPlayer
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• Setup of VCPlayer Capture
• A PC, a camera, an electronic whiteboard, and
  a high quality microphone, (or a TabletPC
  with a webcam and a high quality microphone)
• Recorded contents can be duplicated to CD/DVDs
  immediately after recording
• thus requiring no post-editing.
• If high-bandwidth connection is available,
  video and dynamic whiteboard content with
  annotation can alternatively be streamed to
  students.

School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Engineering Education Conference 2006
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Trial of VCPlayer-based Lectures
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one lecture was given in the traditional format
but recorded using the VCPlayer during class and
distributed for revision purposes after the class
Engineering Education Conference 2006
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• Evaluation Questions
• Acceptable alternative Are the
  pre-recorded lectures on CD an acceptable
  alternative to a live lecture?
• Achieve the level of understanding I feel
  that I was able to achieve the level of
  understanding I wanted for topics that used only
  the pre-recorded CD (followed by some
  discussion in class).
• Preferred choice I would be more likely to
  watch 100 of the lectures if they were
  on a pre-recorded CD than attending 100 of the
  live lectures (with no CD available).
• Efficient learning method Learning using
  pre-recorded CDs (followed by class
  discussions) was a more efficient way to learn
  than going to live lectures.
• Review understand better I liked the
  opportunity to review the CD-based
  lectures because understanding all the material
  in a live lecture environment is rather
  difficult.
• Learning at my own pace Pre-recorded CDs
  allowed me to learn at my own pace.
• Recommend to other courses I would
  recommend the use of pre-recorded CDs
  (followed by class discussions) for other courses
  within the school.
• More convenient It was more convenient for
  me to learn via a pre-recorded CD than
  attend a live lecture

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Summary of Evaluation Results
School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Engineering Education Conference 2006
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Usage Analysis of Pre-recorded CDs
School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Engineering Education Conference 2006
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• Preferences Between CD-based Delivery Modes
• Preference between receiving a pre-recorded CD
  first with no live lecture but with a discussion
  class, and having a live lecture first but also
  receiving a recorded CD after class.

School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Engineering Education Conference 2006
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• Observation of Student Academic Performance
• A slightly improved pass rate was observed
  for the same level of paper over a 3-year period
  for an undergraduate cohort.

School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Engineering Education Conference 2006
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Example Student Feedback

• Great idea. Liked your DVD. Need more
  examples.
• Excellent. Hope all other courses will use this
  too.
• The discussion class is of equal importance
• The DVD idea is very efficient as it allows for
  a greater depth and understanding of any part
  of the course
• Do live lecture for certain lectures, and the
  remainder on DVD
• DVDs very effective, but also need live
  discussion class

School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Engineering Education Conference 2006
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Example Student Feedback

• I think a live lecture followed by a DVD handout
  would be very effective
• Use pre-recorded DVDs only for difficult topics
  that need more understanding, and give more
  examples
• Recorded lectures reduce social aspects of the
  course which are an important part of
  university
• I only learnt efficiently because the DVDs were
  available. 1000000x better than those live
  lectures

School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Engineering Education Conference 2006
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Staff Feedback

• Easy to record lectures
• Great for archiving live teaching material for
  future use
• Miss having live feedback from students
• Majority of students are really enthusiastic
  about this mode
• Discussion classes are essential

School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Engineering Education Conference 2006
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Evaluation of Year 2006 Pre-recorded CD Trial(No
live lecture, pre-recorded CDs throughout
course)(these results are not in the paper)
School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Engineering Education Conference 2006
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Discussion and Questions
School of Electrical Engineering
Telecommunications
Engineering Education Conference 2006